Eating Cheaper 2: Mas

Last night, we tried Mas, armed with a cut-rate gift certificate purchased from restaurant.com (which I learned about from browsing eatchicago.net (thanks, EatChicago!). I ordered a glass of the house sangria (nice, hearty, not too sweet, and full of good stuff); Victor ordered the mojito. This was good, but very different from the Mambo Cafe mojitos not as sweet, and more subtly minty (whole mint leaves rest at the bottom of the glass).

We ordered four appetizers to share: the house salad, a crab chowder, fish tacos, and the lamb special.

The house salad was nice and fresh, with a couple purple onion rings and a few candied nuts, but unremarkable. The chowder was rich and delicious, with an infused oil floating at the top - so rich, I think we were both glad we were sharing the bowl. Never had fish tacos before, so I can't call myself an authority, but thought these were really excellent. Little chunks of (not overdone) tuna and papaya in a really tasty sauce, wrapped up in a very fresh tortilla. The lamb special consisted of leg-of-lamb slices with a chickpea melange. The lamb was a little too rare for us (chewy rare, rather than melty rare), and the chickpeas were interesting, but perhaps a little al dente. (Some people might like that in a chickpea!)

We loved the bread, which has a good chew to it, and the spread they provide for it (white bean, bacon, and chipotles, we were told when we asked) is highly delicious, creating a constant struggle between using the bread to sop up the last of the sauce from the fish taco, and using it as a medium to consume yet more spread.

We were already full, but forced ourselves to order dessert. We chose pears poached three different ways: one way was red wine; I regret I've already forgotten the other ways, but each was quite delicious if perhaps a bit oversweet. We were excited to try the accompanying vanilla gelato - we've never had a really good vanilla gelato (in Italy you can scarcely find it offered, at least when we looked for it) and had assumed gelato was just more suited to chocolate and fruit flavors. We enjoyed Mas' version, but it had a different flavor in it we couldn't quite identify. Burnt sugar? I thought it tasted perhaps a bit taffyish. Interesting.

Overall, service and atmosphere were very good, as you might expect from a place in this price range. Our two drinks came to $15; appetizers are between $5 and $10, and entrees run from the high teens to the high twenties. In spite of the cost, the cut-rate gift certificate did its job, and introduced Mas to two new customers who are likely to return.

Mas
1670 W. Division
Chicago, Illinois
773-276-8700
Mon - Thu 5:30-10:30p
Fri - Sat 5:30-11:30p

Saw that Mas is featured this month's Chile Pepper magazine. Haven't seen much mention of it on the board recently--is it worth a visit?

http://www.chilepepper.com

Mas also does an excellent wine dinner once a month. It's $50 plus tip for 4 courses and 5 wines (as much as you want!) with instruction on both wines & the regions they are from. We have finally learned not to actually drink all of the wines b/c it's just not worth the hangover on Friday.